The deadline to submit bids for building the country's first land-based LNG terminal, having the capacity to handle 7.5 million tonnes per year (Mtpa), has been extended by three months to June 20 next.
State-run Rupantarita Prakritik Gas Company Ltd (RPGCL) has extended the deadline following requests coming from a number of prospective bidders, said a senior RPGCL official.
RPGCL, a wholly-owned subsidiary of state-owned Petrobangla, floated the tender on January 29, 2019 setting a deadline for EOI (expression of interest) submission on March 20, 2019.
A couple of firms including one from Japan, however, had submitted the EOI to RPGCL, said the official without mentioning the names of the companies.
The proposed terminal is planned to be built by the successful bidder on build, own, operate and transfer or BOOT basis at Matarbari in Cox's Bazar district near the Bay of Bengal.
Bangladesh has planned to build this land-based LNG re-gasification terminal on priority basis to ensure stability in re-gasified LNG supplies to domestic consumers, the official said.
The project company would own, operate and maintain it for 20 years.
Currently, Bangladesh has a maiden operational 3.75 Mtpa FSRU (floating, storage, re-gasification unit) owned by US's Excelerate Energy.
The country's second FSRU owned by local Summit Group is expected to come online soon.
Commercial supply of re-gasified LNG to Bangladeshi consumers started from August 18, 2018 after resolving technical issues, among others.
State-run Petrobangla, however, started regular imports of LNG from Qatar's RasGas from September 09 after synchronising successfully re-gasified LNG carrying pipeline with Excellence.
Currently, some 510 million cubic feet of re-gasified LNG is being supplied daily to the national grid from the Excelerate Energy's vessel Excellence.
Apart from RasGas, Oman Trading International started supplying LNG in June under long-term deals.
Now Bangladesh has a letter of intent or LOI deal with Indonesia's Petramina to import annually around 1.0 Mtpa of lean LNG for 10 years.
Final SPA with Petramina has not yet been inked.
azizjst@yahoo.com